Lockheed C 130 Hercules | Upscaled documentary | The Herk or Herc | Fat Albert | Bleed Air Blimp

when it was introduced more than 30 years ago the c-130 revolutionized military airlift in the vietnam conflict its service was invaluable in both resupply and airlift roles the c-130 saved the lives of thousands of troops in the field although replacements have been designed none have been able to outperform this legend in military aviation tonight soar high with the lockheed c-130 on wings meet the demands of the present day but would be capable of flying well into the future [Music] to replace its older more open up and numerous other unique requirements and uh many uh people who saw the design including the renowned kelly johnson commented that it was the ugliest airplane he had ever seen the c-130a made its first flight on april 7 1955. mr leo sullivan was one of its pilots well it's been a long time since the first flight but i gotta tell you that from the day we first flew the airplane it was probably the finest transport anyone could have today in the c-130 we produced three aircraft a month in days past we've produced as high as 18 aircraft per month and lockheed engineers are busy designing new versions to carry production towards the 21st century over the years hercules has grown inside the b model had many improvements it was equipped with more powerful engines four allison t-56 a47s and the three-bladed propellers were replaced by four-bladed models maximum range was extended to four thousand miles moves were also made to shorten the takeoff distance lockheed developed a boundary layer control for the hercules adding two jet engines to the four existing prop jet engines the jets forced air over the control surfaces increasing lift allowing the aircraft to take off after a ground roll of approximately 400 feet the e model produced for the military airlift command increased the cargo carrying ability of the aircraft to 155 000 pounds range was the major improvement for the c-130e it could cross the atlantic non-stop [Music] on short rough fields hercules often uses jet assisted takeoff or jato it cuts takeoff distance from a 1 500 foot minimum to about 800 feet [Music] the latest model of the hercules is the c-130h many improvements have brought the aircraft completely up to date when the armed services needed an aircraft to deliver troops and supplies the c-130 was there lockheed's hercules introduced prop jet power to transports the navy made an exception to the natural inter-service rivalry with the air force by adopting the c-130 it was initiated by the marines who wanted an assault transport that could double as a tanker the most dramatic feat performed by the hercules was a carrier landing the pilot flew his way to a distinguished flying cross by landing the plane solidly on deck despite success the navy decided that landing on carriers was too risky today the navy uses the hercules for refueling paradrops and resupply missions [Music] the u.s coast guard flies regular patrols with its hc-130s they track and mark the huge atlantic icebergs which threaten northern shipping lanes an increasingly important role for the hc-130 is detecting and monitoring oil slicks once the oil has been cited floating barriers can be dropped to help contain it because of the world demand for offshore natural resources coastal surveillance has become more important many nations have extended their territorial waters to 200 nautical miles coast surveillance teams worldwide have found the hercules to be an ideal aircraft for maritime patrol currently over 60 countries are finding uses for more than 40 commercial and military versions of the hercules whatever its colors or configurations hercules has always been there in time of need it has brought food to the hungry relief to victims of natural disasters and hope to remote corners of the earth [Music] it's little wonder that this flying truck is known to many as the samaritan of the skies the c-130 is a crew airplane and it really is a crew airplane in all the best sense of the word everybody is working together of course some at different times people have different uh different workloads but uh the people flying the airplane uh flew it as a as a crew and uh many times you on the ground you stayed as a crew [Music] especially when we're you know we're trying to make it do something like land you know talking it down the same thing when you're fishing you gotta talk to the fish no you won't catch it just like the airplane the same thing santa you gotta talk it down and it's part of it perhaps hercules finest hour came in vietnam the aircraft's true potential was put to the test the men who flew the c-130s were as much a part of the war as any front-line soldier [Music] the story of the hercules in southeast asia is also their story [Music] diversity of the mission uh quite an interesting factor one day you're doing one thing actually one one part of the day you're doing one thing the next day you're doing something different i've had a lot of diversions combat essential missions hauling ammunition emergency air of acts taking people out mass casualties and so on keep shining your toes i had a real good virgin last time i was flying a mission almost through with it and that it burned me in for emergency uh blood resupply and to problems up north and it was uh real interesting i mean we weren't expecting that we're through for the day went in there and had to bust the ceiling it was right down in midlands atlanta short field it was real [Music] 200 and slippery feet down the runway with a red color copy successful we're in the airlift control center of the 834th air division in saigon where the daily flight operations of the airlift in vietnam is monitored scheduled and controlled the boards that you see in the command center are used to display all the mission information for the some eight hundred to a thousand sorties that are flown each day by c7s c123s and c130s of the 834th air division the 130 will operate in 2500 feet so it does have the capability to go into the forward areas into the unimproved strips and where the activity levels are high the c-130 has proven to be the real workhorse of the fleet came under a rocket attack while we were there so we got a delay out of there took off i think in about a quarter of eight went up to uh wang tree he had a combat essential load in the clan trees some tank tracks for some tanks going west to caisson and we landed at quang trade about 9 30 this morning when we landed there we had some problems with our airplane with the nose gear and some engine problems we had to stay there for about four hours work on the airplane at about one o'clock our command post sent another airplane in to pick us up i picked this up and took us down to chulai where we had it some rockets to pick up to take back into caisson that crew flew into caisson we landed there at about 4 30 tonight and took off again about five o'clock came down to danang for fuel and returned a ton of that for us just about 18 hours it's uh 29 it's late [Music] i am a flight nurse with the 903rd air medical evacuation squadron we have approximately 20 litters and 53 ambulatory patients they're the best pilots in the world they'll land on a dirt strip or they'll land on a piece of steel stuck in the middle of some every second place and do a tremendous job uh i think the most difficult uh landing i've ever been on is antoi which is a western part of an island off the western part of vietnam pukwak island and it says a minimum runway no lighting and we went in there one night it was just pitch black raining like cats and dogs and they had smudge pods and jeeps were lighting the runway and those fellows stuck it down they're just beautiful well you hear pros and cons you know all from all the troops around you hear me saying we're doing everything over here and the vietnamese are not holding up their end it's their war they should be fighting more of it and you get a mission like we had today and you go up there and you pick up these troops and saw some that had their legs blown up some of them burned half to death and i tell you you don't get that walking around out on the street that you get kind of mixed feelings i think of course you're happy to get them out of there because they're hurt you want to get them back for get some treatments and good treatment and it's also kind of depressing we can't get away from that of course that's part of the war people going to get hurt they were fighting a war there's no doubt about it [Music] the first kia i ever hauled i don't remember the exact place i picked it up but i knew before we landed that that's what we were picking up i didn't know how many and as it happened we were empty we had no other cargo on board we came in and we brought an ambulance out it was an unmarked ambulance and of course i knew they were you know gi kias and it really makes really makes you stop and think about you know like uh alan has said before that it may be somebody you know or it could be you at one time or another and it's really a bad scene as far as especially if you've got an empty cargo compartment there's just you and them and it's seems awful crowded at times [Music] this is colonel mike higgins the c-130 will be right back on wings well we're back here in caisson i was here about three years ago about this time the time we're running 130 to support [Music] the c-130 lift was a lifeline to caisson they said it was a victory through air power but for us crunch on the ground it was really a victory for the 130 capability to deliver here we had tack air and support and these ridge lines in here [Music] we had fighter jock 40 and i guess b-52 strikes the running right up to the perimeter [Music] but there were days when there was no tech close air support and the 130s continue to airland and land up in this area and they take fire from the uh hills surrounding us coming in in the under fire almost constantly and then when they landed the nva in the hills and started flipping a few in on them we got the name of calling a motivate all the time their ground times then used to extend sometimes up to about one minute you'd have 60 gi's run on to get out sometimes we keep a little longer from medevac [Music] so then they decided the method of delivery they'd used was a container delivery system just off this horizon here we set up a drop zone of about 300 by 300 yards very tight small drop zone i used a cds drop about 600 feet successfully put in about 150 to 200 tons a day [Music] [Music] we had some equipment we couldn't deliver in containers these one-ton containers heavy bunker and barrier materials so which you see around caisson today he asked the air force what they could do he started with a late a low altitude parachute extraction they successfully delivered for a number of days just tons and tons of barrier material and supplies [Music] this time they were continually taking quarter fire so we went again into another system called the ground proximity extraction system which is an arrested barrier and a hook our requirements for beans and bullets were well over two to three hundred tons a day we got a hell of a lot of in with chopper but the heavy tonnage requirement was moved by the old 130s attack been my experience with working with the airlifters during the last stint here but they supported us in the delta back into the ashore valley with the first team at allui they've lost airplanes every trip but i'll say this much for them you call them tell them where it has to be and they'll put it in [Music] this is a job for airlift all the way i tell you man those damn f4 jocks there's one energized those bug jocks they're gonna be gone we're still gonna be over here hauling trash who's important tell me [Music] hercules also carried weapons when south vietnam invaded laos the c-130 dropped 15 000 pound bombs instantly clearing landing zones for helicopters [Music] shoot [Music] [Applause] [Music] four three two one wings will return on the discovery channel now we return to wings on the discovery channel when darkness fell ac-130 gunships armed with many guns and cannons searched out and destroyed north vietnamese targets [Music] [Music] tank one of target four [Music] i had these moving yeah um [Music] nothing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the kind of war the u.s fought in southeast asia called for heavy reliance on close air support aircraft were called in to aid forces on the ground hercules acted as an airborne battlefield command post or abccc the c-130 directed joint air and ground operations controlled direct air support and airborne communications during special strikes and served as a command post for air rescue activities [Music] the abccc featured a boxcar sized package of communications and observations gear it was loaded into the c-130 for airborne operations and could also be flown into the forward area and set up on the ground hercules continues to serve as a platform for the abccc today the c-130 performed many other functions the rc-130 version of the hercules carried a huge camera lens in its belly and was equipped with cameras and special avionics in the cargo area the rc-130 photographed the landscapes and updated the maps of many countries [Music] remotely piloted vehicles rpbs or drones as they are commonly called are launched from the dc-130 version of hercules drones have been around a long time in the vietnam war they were accepted as an alternative to manned aircraft drones flew over 3 000 missions in southeast asia of those 3 200 were lost in combat 200 that could have been manned aircraft today the drone aircraft has two missions photo reconnaissance and electronic warfare support on a photo reconnaissance the dc-130 launches the drone it descends to 500 feet and takes pictures of the target on an electronic warfare mission the drone flies into a high threat area and jams the enemy's radar by dispensing chaff or by using its electronic jammers the drone is monitored by a remote control officer aboard the dc-130 when the drone returns it is caught mid-air by the ch3 helicopters [Music] the crews often say that when they're trying to catch the 3 000 pound bird they're not always sure who's got who but this rescue helicopter has a firm hold on the situation thanks to the hc-130 this hercules model coordinates rescue and recovery efforts distress signals picked up by the hc-130 are passed on to helicopters for both land and sea rescue [Music] the jc-130 hercules rescued astronauts returning from outer space it was also used to retrieve instruments returning from orbit the aircraft was fitted with hooks and wrench lines [Music] as the space capsule descended by parachute the jc-130 caught it in mid-air other hercules were used in creating recovery systems using airborne winches to lift loads into a plane this led to a new way to catch a ride on the hercules the jc hercules paved the way for the mc-130 combat talon [Music] special operation forces use the talon with the fulton recovery system for live pickups the talon can pick up downed pilots rescue special agents or retrieve classified material from enemy areas the mc-130 and its highly trained crews can fly into places where more conventional planes can't go thanks to terrain following radar and all weather capability [Music] the fulton gear is paradropped to the man on the ground it takes about 20 minutes to put on the special recovery suit and prepare for the pickup the combat talent crew takes this time to complete all final checks of the fulton system [Music] the man on the ground releases a helium-filled balloon which carries its pickup line into position and signals the crew that he's ready ready that is for the ride of his life seen a c-130 that hit a bulldozer on takeoff and it uh tore out the ramp the aft part of the airplane and it flew about an hour and a half back to cameron bay from the forward location with the ramp half hanging out the back of the airplane and made it okay i don't think they ever flew the airplane again but at least it made it back that far [Music] this strange-looking hercules is britain's c mark ii weather plane located behind his long candy striped nose is a package of sophisticated weather gear the u.s air force wc-130 isn't as unique on the outside but the mission it performs is equally as important the wc-130 is known as the hurricane hunter [Music] when most pilots try to avoid the severe weather our pilots and our air crews go looking for the worst weather known to mankind i'm lieutenant colonel dennis wood commander of the 53rd weather reconnaissance squadron or as we're better known to hurricane hunters we are one of only two such units in the active duty air force and one in the air force reserves our primary mission is to fly into the eye of hurricanes in order to gather weather data for the national hurricane center which they use in the forecasting of movement strength and development of tropical storms weather officers and drops on systems operators are part of their weather service while the remainder of the personnel are assigned to the 53rd weather reconnaissance squadron let's go fly storm you fly into the weather environment to look at it study it whereas in a normal assignment you usually stay on the ground to do that a lot of times we'll go out and fly the same uh hurricane three four five days in the road a lot of those times you end up flying about 12 hours you come back and land and you have 12 hours crew rest you're out again the same storm the next day from this particular mission a navigator is really important because a computer can be used from point to point but we don't fly point to point in the storm we're trying to draw a line to the center of the storm and it isn't always straight every storm is different nothing can be decided ahead of time once you go through the wall that's the probably the busiest time for us not too much thought about the hurricane goes on if it's real bumpy you just try and work the best you can we release the sign into the atmosphere and it free falls with a parachute sends back pressure temperature and humidity and that we take the data analyze it and send it back to the hurricane center everything's done in a real safe manner and over a hundred thousand flying hours we've never had a major aircraft accident [Music] smell buildings that i've had that i really think is worth mentioning is the first storm because it's beautiful to look at it just struck me that i was very fortunate to be able to see a hurricane from that direction not many people have i think that we're doing a valuable service for the people united states but the mission we do will save some lives and help people prepare it gives us a great satisfaction we'll be doing that type of humanitarian mission [Music] [Applause] [Music] now there we are how about that well three two zeros on the deck after gca for a right turn the sound of jet engines and the thump of the world's largest skis helped bring antarctica closer to the rest of the world when the hercules landed at the south pole it was the first aircraft of its size to do so and it would revolutionize efforts in the antarctic [Music] landing on the world's largest skis 20 feet long weighing one ton apiece the lc-130 can land on a remote ice shelf as gracefully as on a dry runway [Music] from the beginning lc-130s supported the navy's operation deep freeze along with other scientific projects at the pole they revolutionized exploration of the great white continent taking scientists to formerly unreachable spots hercules provided a lifeline of food fuel and supplies to these remote outposts [Music] at the other end of the world the l-100 stretched commercial hercules hauled 100 million average pounds of supplies food and equipment to alaska's oil fields hercules also assisted in the transportation of construction materials for the alaska oil pipeline [Music] the hercules worldwide fleet has logged almost 19 million flight hours with a history of safety and reliability [Music] the c-130 hercules the workhorse of the jet age a one airplane air force [Music] you

Channel: DroneScapes

Views: 96,927

Keywords: c 130 documentary, c-130 documentary, lockheed C-130, c-130 hercules, c-130j super hercules, ac-130 gunship, military airlifter, c 130 hercules, ac-130 in action, lockheed c-130 hercules, us air force, ac 130, ac-130 documentary, c-130 hercules takeoff, c-130 hercules gunship, C130, c-130 landing on aircraft carrier, lockheed, c 130 hercules landing, us military, us army, air force, c 130, hercules c130, aircraft documentary, military aircraft documentary, Hercules c 130

Id: eFOvtC027sw

Length: 43min 6sec (2586 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 30 2022